Blue Valentine
by ReillyJade
Summary: Charlie hates Valentine's Day, and so does Tonks. However, when the two friends engage in a rant about the holiday, a heart unintentionally gets broken.


**~Blue Valentine~**

I just don't get it.

Someone really needs to explain to me why Valentine's Day is so damn special. I'm not even in the Great Hall yet and I've already seen three blokes get yelled at by their witches because they forgot the holiday. One of the girls was mad because she didn't get a present, and the other two apparently consider this to be the most important day for couples.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I've never seen the point in Valentine's Day. Why is it that one day out of the entire year you have to buy flowers, chocolates, cards, and candy to prove you love someone? Why do couples want to celebrate their relationship on the same day as everyone else is? If I had a girlfriend, I'd consider our own anniversary to be far more important than some random day in the middle of February. All this Valentine's Day nonsense is just silly.

And Merlin's beard, everything is pink today. I mean, _everything_. Pink garland, pink glitter, pink paper hearts...they're everywhere. Mind you, I have nothing against the color, but this is just ridiculous.

A loose pink balloon hits me in the face as I walk into the Great Hall, and I smack it away just in time to see a blur of blue running toward me at full speed.

"Chaaaarliiiie!" Tonks exclaims a little too loudly, throwing her arms around me and nearly knocking me over. Apparently she's had her coffee this morning, not that she ever needs any.

"Merlin, Tonks, are you trying to kill me?" I laugh, hugging her back.

"C'mon, we're late," she says as she pulls away, ignoring me. "The village is going to be crowded."

I glance up at the clock behind the teachers' table, then look at her inquiringly.

"Tonks, it's only seven-thirty."

"Exactly! We better go now before all the lunatic lovebirds fill up the place."

"But I haven't even had breakfast yet!"

"The Three Broomsticks has pancakes. C'mon, it's on me!" Tonks says happily as she proceeds to skip out the door. I follow, shaking my head and smiling. She really is something else.

"So, what's with the blue?" I ask as I finally catch up to her. She altered her usual bubblegum pink hair in favor of a dark royal blue shade. It suits her quite well, actually. She looks nice.

Tonks waves her wand to push some pink streamers out of our way, then looks at me with her eyebrow raised. "Since when have I ever liked to blend in?"

"Fair point," I say with a smile.

Tonks jabbers on about a million different things all the way to Hogsmeade, and I simply listen. I can rarely get a word in with her, but I don't mind. I like listening to her. Merlin, I just like _her_, and not in a way you're supposed to like your best friend. I want to hold her hand when we go to class (on the rare occasions when she's not skipping or running, or course.) I want to tell her how pretty she looks with blue hair, or with pink hair, or with any other hair color she chooses. I want to do Valentine's Day things with her – not on Valentine's Day, mind you, but everyday. Is that normal? Is it appropriate to think such thoughts about your best friend, the one person who you're supposed to confide in about such feelings?

We pass Bill and Emma on the way to the Three Broomsticks. I should talk to him about all of this sometime. Maybe he'd have some advice for me. After all, he seemed to make it work; he and Emma were best friends long before they got romantically involved, and they're probably the most sensible couple in school. They don't cling to one other, they aren't all over each other in the corridors, and they certainly don't take Valentine's Day so seriously. They're just..._normal._

I like that. I wouldn't mind something like that with Tonks. Of course, I can hardly classify Tonks as normal, but I'd still like to be able to call her my girlfriend. I want what Bill has with Emma. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to gather up enough of my Gryffindor courage and ask Tonks on a proper date. On second thought, a proper date wouldn't be fun for Tonks. She'd probably much rather do something out of the ordinary. Maybe if the weather is nice enough we could go swimming in the Black Lake and see how long it takes the Giant Squid to notice. She'd get a kick out of that, I'm sure.

Once we're in the pub, we get a table near the back and order our breakfast. By this point, Tonks has already moved onto the subject of the upcoming Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin match. She reckons I should exercise my powers as a school prefect and find a way to give the Slytherin seeker detention on the day of the match.

"I'd love to if Bill wasn't Head Boy. He'd catch me in a heartbeat."

"Damn. You're right. Maybe Jessie would do it."

"Maybe."

"See, this is why Professor Sprout didn't pick me as a prefect," Tonks says, smirking. "She knows I would have tried to get away with too much."

"You _still_ try to get away with too much."

"Of course I do! Where's the fun in life if you don't bend the rules every once in a while? Oh, Merlin, look. It's starting already..."

Tonks gestures out the window at a giggling sixth year girl who's dragging her grimacing boyfriend to Madam Puddifoot's.

"This holiday is so stupid," Tonks remarks, rolling her eyes. "If I ever get that pathetic, please slap me."

I raise my eyebrow and grin. "Even if you did, which you won't, I wouldn't slap you. I'd hex you."

She laughs and playfully smacks me on the shoulder. "Meanie. But really, Valentine's Day is lame. Actually, relationships in general are silly."

Oh...

"It's kind of weird, isn't it? Like, does it make sense to tie yourself down with one person?"

I don't like where this is going...

"Dating is cute and everything, but the long-term thing kind of creeps me out."

Damn...

"I mean, it works for some people, of course, but it's just not for me. How about you?"

"Huh?"

"You know...boyfriends, girlfriends...what do you think about all of it?"

"Oh, um...yeah," I lie. "I agree. They're lame, just like Valentine's Day."

Tonks grins. "That's why I like you, Charlie. You don't try to be someone you're not just to fit in with everyone else. You're just you."

I smile back, but say nothing. She's sort-of right. I really am myself most of the time. But right now, I'm lying. I see nothing wrong with relationships – normal ones, that is. I'm not into all the superficial crap most of my classmates seem to like so much. I look out the window and just happen to see Bill and Emma walking by. They're holding hands and talking. Just talking. They seem content, comfortable, natural..._that's_ what I want, and I want it with Tonks. That's out of the question now, I guess.

Now she's talking about the Weird Sisters' latest record. I only-half listen as I think about how pretty she looks with that royal blue hair and those slightly glossy lips. I wish I could kiss her without freaking her out. I wish I could hold her hand when we return to Hogwarts later. And even though I think Valentine's Day is stupid, I wouldn't mind taking her to Honeydukes and letting her pick out a box of chocolates.

We head back to Hogwarts a couple of hours later, and we pass a fourth-year girl who's sobbing to her friends because her boyfriend bought her pink roses instead of red. It's so annoying. No one realizes how lucky they are just to have someone to love and love them in return. That's what matters, not the material things.

Valentine's Day sucks. It really sucks.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This was written for OCDegrassi's "Anti-Valentine's Day Challenge" over on the HPFC forum. Thanks for reading!

Bill and his girlfriend, Emma, are a direct reference to my one of my other one-shots, _Flowers in December._ If you want to read more about their relationship, that's where you'll find their story in its entirety. :)


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